BBC’s Disgusting Response to Olympic Complaints

At HonestReporting, we recognize and credit our readership for taking action against the media when they are sufficiently motivated to do so. While it is our job to encourage activism, we know that our readers are not automatons who will write letters to editors or complain to the media at our say so.

While we can alert the public to the issues, it is ultimately an exercise in free choice and independent and informed thought as to whether or not someone will take action. Unfortunately the BBC evidently believes the opposite.

Many people who complained to the BBC about its failure to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital on its Olympic country website profile were answered with the following included in a canned response:

We have received a range of feedback about the errors on the BBC Sport Olympics page and we feel it is worth explaining that a considerable number of those have been generated by online lobby activity.

What exactly is the inference of referring to “online lobby activity?”

Does the BBC consider your individual complaints less worthy simply because the information was passed on to the complainant by way of HonestReporting or any number of other organizations?

Not to mention the particularly insidious connotation behind referring to a “lobby” when it comes to an issue associated with Jews or Israel. Is the BBC insinuating that the issue is being driven by dark forces behind the scenes and that the complaints are insincere?

This is simply a cheap and nasty way of diverting attention from the real issue.

When people take the time and effort to complain, it is irrelevant how they came to be notified or encouraged to do so. Every individual complaint deserves the full attention of the BBC without prejudice as to whether or not the complainant happens to be a reader of HonestReporting or any other organization.

For the BBC to say otherwise is disrespectful and the accusation of some form of deceitful lobbying is utterly disgusting.

I doubt that any other ethnic group has contributed more per capita than the Jews to building up the prosperity and power of the USA in all fields: technological, scientific and medical, economic, industrial and military. Unfortunately we have also produced, like any other people, our share of degenerates who are busy undermining the structure of the building.

These usually run to a predictable pattern — superficially sophisticated metropolitans who are in fact deeply ignorant, lovers of good living who are not prepared to lift a finger to defend our precious civilisation, long-haired pseudo-intellectuals who love Obama and hate Bush and Regan.
They include Tenenbaum. Shame on him!

To bubbelove0: You think you are the center of the world? I do not know who the H.. you are, but to call our President a terrorist, your brain needs to be circumcised. If you only knew how much he has helped Israel, just talk to the IDF and look at the weapons supplied by your “Terrorist” In plain English, shame upon you.
Tenpa

Here’s a newsflash for you: If Obama has been so great for Israel (and the only Jews i know who still believe this are those who remain bobble-head zombie Obamaniacs), why do 80% of Israelis when asked if Obama has been more good or bad for Israel, answer “bad”?

The problem with Obamaslurps like yourself is that you’re oblivious to the facts about this Fraud in the White House, including all the well-documented times he’s thrown Israel under the bus like totally dissing Bibi when he visited, telling Israel to revert to indefensible pre-67 borders, leaking Israeli security secrets, failing to do anything significant to contain Iran’s nuclear program, etc.,etc.
Get a grip.

We have seen the far right(so called) Nazis and the far left Communists combine to attack Israel and it’s leaders.

The difference between the rabid far right Nazis i.e. National Socialists hatred of the Jews and the far left Communists i.e. International Socialists hatred of the Jewish state is one small matter – Inter. There is no difference and should be treated with contempt and suspicion. Sadly too many Jews are unable to feel the betrayal of the leftwing camp. They still live in the past.

Don’t forget the BBC retains the services of highly paid leftwing Jews who remain schtum, as one would expect of them.

The tax payers funded BBC is a highly corrupt organisation with the top echelons paying themselves fantastic sums of money along with very expensive expenses. Of course, it also backs it’s equally corrupt leftwing anti democratic EU, and therefore understandably anti Israel. The Guardian, it’s sunday sibling the Observer and the so called Independent are all corrupt in their reporting on Israel. all are ultra left wing.

It’s beyond obvious that the BBC has for a long time had a disgraceful bigoted bias toward Israel (as does the Guardian of course).

While i firmly believe these biases cloaked in “political disagreement with Israel’s policies” are so blatantly 1-sided and inaccurate that they can only arise from underlying antiSemitism, i don’t hold out much hope that either of these smug self-absorded liberal dominated media sources is going to change their hateful policies any time soon.

The best approach i believe is to continue what HR does so well—call out BBC, the Guardian and any other media source which makes blatantly dishonest statements about Israel, as loudly and publicly as possible.

I know that the BBC and Manchester Guardian comments are always biased against Israel So my only advice is to get these publications to fire the editors and put a few non-biased journalists in.
Still,; I can’ boycott the HOT or to resist switching to BBC Prime and keep watching the BBC shows on the TV. I agree with all the other comments too. Pauline Chinn

FIRST GET ALL THE EMBASSIES OUT OF TEL AVIV AND INTO JERUSALEM!!! No more pussyfooting around.
Second, where is our wonderful President Obama?? Don’t you think that he could make a statement about Jerusalem being the Capital of Israel? Those of you who still support Obama need your heads examined. He continues supporting the terrorists – because that is what he is. America is doomed if he is elected, and Israel is, too. He is NO friend of Israel.

FIRST GET ALL THE EMBASSIES OUT OF TEL AVIV AND INTO JERUSALEM!!! No more pussyfooting around.
Second, where is our wonderful President Obama?? Don’t you think that he could make a statement about Jerusalem being the Capital of Israel? Those of you who still support Obama need your heads examined. He continues supporting the terrorists – because that is what he is. America is doomed if he is elected, and Israel is, too. He is NO friend of Israel.

I read the BBC reply quite differently. That lobbying activity that resulted in Israel not having a capitol may have been referring to anti-Israel groups that lobbied against listing Jerusalem as Israel’s capitol, and in favor of listing “East Jerusalem” as capitol of “Palestine.” If true, it would have been better for the committee to refer to a world almanac than simply accept the demands of people sending emails.

How CAN you skip the Capitol of an Olympic country? You NEED to correct this ommission now!
And while you’re getting back into doing the right thing, you MUST honor the ’1 minute of silence’ to remember YOUR athletes killed at the Olympic Games in Munich. Aren’t THESE games for unity & goodwill with other countries?
If not, what are these athletes playing for?
It couldn’t be for politics…?

Disappointed Jaques but surely not surprised. Then to compound the matter the BBC responds by making the matter worse – still no surprise, by creating a ‘seat of government’ out of Jerusalem and an ‘intended’ one of ‘East’ Jerusalem (whatever that means). What do they know that we don’t? One thing I know about the BBC it’s about as impartial as Hezbollah when it comes to Israel!
If you live in the UK and want to legitimately watch any channel on TV you must first pay a license fee to this bloated and biased organisation. I for one refuse.

Why talk to the BBC about right and wrong and where whos capitol is. It’s just water off a duck’s back. Instead we should be talking to our local Public Radio Stations. The ones to which I get to listen each carry a big segment of BBC News. I assume it’s that way at Public Radio Stations all over this country. We should talk to those Public Radio Stations about carrying some other news source, a source that is less biased than the BBC. That’s a form of complaint I think the BBC will listen to.

PBS are lackies of the Left in this country. Always have been. Their position is no different than the BBC’s. When Republican congresspeople have tried to cut funding, the Democrats and the Left get all bent out of shape. Public radio is a favorite of Muslims here in this country. I can’t see this working any more than besieging the BBC with e-mails.

Where I am in Canada we get PBS television that carries the BBC News but not the radio stations, so I am not sure if this would apply to radio as well. The television stations are are constantly having telethons to raise funds. Maybe they will get the message if enough people call in saying that we would be happy to donate as soon as PBS replaces the BBC with a more objective source of news.

BBC=Bombastic, Biased and Culpable! The dirty little secret has been exposed. Arab funding of the BBC has trumped journalistic fairness in reporting. The BBC has basically become a mouthpiece for Arab causes that seek the destruction of Israel. In fact, it would be a misnomer to call the BBC an agency for balanced reporting or journalism. They are now a full blown propoganda machine for terrorists. Nice. And to think that once upon a time, the BBC dramatically covered the Battle of Britain when the Nazis were in full onslaught of Britian. Edward R. Murrow would be ashamed. For that matter, the BBC seems to be anti-Britian. Might as well have minarets on their web page with a muezzin.

Well put. The BBC is a parasite dependent on it’s host (the license fee payer) for sustenance whilst destroying the very same.
To legitimately, watch ANY TV channel in the UK you must firstly pay a fee to this bloated, biased organisation – I for one refuse. Pity so many people in this country still believe that the BBC stands for free speech and impartiality. Unfortunately none of the other TV channels have exploited this yet.

While I appreciate that you would like this issue to disappear in order to use licence fees wisely, I also note that you have seen fit to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money to prevent the dissemination of the Balen Report, the BBC’s own investigation into editorial bias in Middle East reporting. Which begs the question: if you have nothing to hide, why are you hiding it?

In closing, please note that I will be posting our correspondence to my Facebook page.

The reference to online lobbying suggests that the BBC does not understand how social media work. I became aware of the situation through a friend’s Facebook post, and posted information about it on my page, where it was picked up by other friends who may or may not have taken action. This is social media in action; to refer to it as “online lobbying” gives the impression that the BBC is out of touch.

Got the canned response and replied: I am writing to request a Stage 2 Independent Investigation of my complaint about the BBC Sport website, which omits a reference to the capital of Israel. The BBC Complaints department may regard this matter resolved, but I do not.

Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. The BBC is not required to like this or to agree with it, but the standards of impartial journalism require it to report that the capital of a sovereign nation is where that country says it is. It is not the BBC’s role to decide where the capital of any nation is located.

Arab organisations have been spending millions in the UK on public relations (propaganda) for years. I wonder how many commentators, correspondents and presenters they have bought up to now. But even that does not produce the pure venom of anti-semitism which appears to be endemic in the senior levels of the BBC. Many of the most vicious offenders are, regrettably, Jews who have embraced over-enthusiastically extreme Left-wing dogma and are more anti-Israel than “normal” anti-Semites.
Perhaps Honest Reporting could do us all a favour and name and shame the BBC directors and managers involved in making these shameful judgments and decisions.
Definitely expel BBC correspondents from Israel.

BBC put the capitol which is given by the country. Where the country conducts its government. Jerusalem is where Israel headquarters. It is ABC’s job to report news not make policy. It is a news organization, right?

I sent a complaint to the BBC and got a response back that said an “Online lobby activity” was behind the efforts to name Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. I am sure they meant Honest Reporting. Rather than deal with the issue, the BBC has chosen to once again place politics above the truth. If East Jerusalem had not been named as the capital of “Palestine”, it might be less odious. But, because the BBC stuck its journalistic finger into the eye of Israel as well as the Jewish people, they must be taken to task. We all know who is behind this. Regardless of that fact, we must be tenacious in our response to outright lies and falsehoods.

It’s like the ye olde Engelond that borrowed money from Jews, kicked them out, invited them back, rinse, repeat, rinse.

It’s preposterous to say that the organization of protest by any means makes the protest null and void. That’s like saying that, although the people have spoken and chosen to vote for Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, we are going to ignore that poll and go on as before because that very opposition party organized the vote against us.

Mr. Abu Nudnik, me thinkest that thou art a very shrewd and wily devil in disguise. Remember that is was Ye Olde Engelond that helped to re-establish a homeland for the Jewish people. with the Balfour declaration: “His Majesty’s government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.” Nice try at being cute and arrogant.

True perhaps. But it was also Ye Olde Engelond that divided and conquered most of the Middle East, creating artificial borders, artificial countries, artificial capitals, and permanent chaos throughout the region. And they did it all out of the kindness of their hearts I’ll bet. It divided the British Mandate of Palestine into three parts rather than the two that it was supposed to have. It lopped off all of Transjordan and poof! A country was born, and they get to designate their own capital! And no one says otherwise. Even fantasy countries (Palestine) have their own capitals recognized by the BBC. But Jews don’t count enough to be able to designate one of their own. history be damned!

you by-passed the havoc the Brits created in the Saudi peninsula, but above all there was one more abominable sin. In 1945, after the collapse of Vichy France, the Brits handed over the Golan Heights to the French, thus creating the future part of Syria (the Levant). The Golan Heights, which were never Syrian, had one Arab village (Khushnyia), four Druze villages and one Circasian town – Kuneitra. The Syrians who were there for the whole of twenty two years now claim ownership.

Nathan, excellent point! the British rearranged the mid-east as they saw fit and today that mess is taken as a geographic fact. that the Jewish capital had existed for centuries prior to the existence of most countries on the planet means little to nothing to polite society (& certainly less to the BBC). the absolute chutzpah of not only denying the well known historical Jewish connection with Jerusalem, but at the same time giving in to Muslim revisionism & false claims to that same capital, and then actually assigning it to a non-existent state as its own, can point to nothing other than antisemitism and discrimination. the BBC diminishes itself greatly with each such absurdity.

England prior to the founding of the State of Israel was a mixed bag for Jews and Eretz Israel. The best book on this is “Battleground”. I can’t recall the author, but I am sure you can find it on Amazon. Bottom line: England proper was divided among pro-Zionist and anti-Zionist camps, but the military government in place during the Mandatory period in Palestine was horribly anti-Zionist and fully Arabist. This dichotomy resulted in the pogroms of Palestine before WWII. There just seemed to be no will or ability on the part of Parliament to reign in the rogue military governors in Palestine, assuming they even knew what was going on.

The BBC sadly is no longer competent in covering events whether news or sports.
Maybe they will cover the Olympic Games with impartiality, maybe not…. Certainly Aljazeera is far superior in their coverage of all news!
It now seems that in their arrogance, they cannot accept that they fail in their duty to inform their viewers in a balance manner.

I wrote to the BBC and in their “independent wisdom” they responded that their (revised) statement that Jerusalem is the “Seat of Government and Tel Aviv the location of most foreign Embassies” is in line with their Policy, thus one can only deduce from this egotistical anodyne reply that the BBC are the manufacturers and therefore Guardians of International Policy.

To consciously deny a legitimate State and Member of the United Nations its’ Capital is nothing but a blatant attempt to negate a universally, (apart from the bulk of Arab Nations) accepted reality.

The BBC has little or no credibility any longer as an Independent reporter of News.

Another example of how the BBC thinks of Israel was a report by correspondent Lise Doucet who is normally accredited to Pakistan. When asked about the huge stockpile of chemical weapons hoarded by Syria she replied “Well, they are only for Israel”. Ok, well that’s all right then!

The solution to this is simple. The Israeli government press office should reject the credentials of any BBC correspondent and turn them back at any news event. Lets see how they like it when Israel refuses to recognize the BBC as a “Journalistic” entity (I say that with great doubt).

Your idea to treat BBC reporters by not recognizing them at any Israeli news event is perfect. Though it won’t change the BBC’s (collective, blatant) anti-Semitism which has been apparent for many years, it will show them they are insignificant. However, when the BBC refuses to print the truth, that’s adds fuel to the fire. So they are guilty on 2 counts! If they want to remain anti-Israel or anti-Semitic, you can’t change that. But to show them up as liars who refuse to print the truth is a violation of all journalistic ethics, making them no better than the al-Qaida-Hezbollah-Palestinian-type terroristic vermin they support.

Well put. This would be the perfect reply. Not only that, but Israel’s Ministry of Communication could cite “evenhandedness” [whatever that means]. What was good for the Perfidy of Albion which supplied Arabs with arms in 1947/48 yet refused the same to Israel, should be good for us. Get those insidious pro-Arabs out of the press rooms.

I live today in the far south-west of the country, a region with a tiny Jewish population. The most respected religious leader though in Cornwall is the Chief Rabbi of Great Britain; when he came to speak in Truro City Hall a few years ago, tickets sold out months beforehand and he received a fantastic reception.
Most people here have probably not ever met a Jew yet every summer hundreds of ultra religious Jews come here on holiday staying at the local University and no-one, and I mean no-one bats an eyelid.

Disgusting? You can say that again, So according to the BBC I am an “online lobbyist.” What in the world is that supposed to mean? I’m part of some nefarious conspiracy? If so, then it’s great that the BBC let me know about my membership in this mysterious group. Otherwise I would never have known. Once it was a great, even heroic institution, and now look at what the BBC has become: a petty, biased, puny dwarf of its former self, unwilling to admit its errors. I hope someone at Honest Reporting forwards all of these comments to the BBC. (Incidentally, one of my fellow Americans has referred to it rather crudely as the Bulls–t Broadcasting Corporation.)

The BBC is like the Guardian, no-one takes it seriously anymore. It’s Left wing bias is so crudely obvious, it’s really not an issue in the UK these days. When the BBC neglects to include Jerusalem it makes itself into a laughing stock – just as the Guardian does all the time, The way the British public see them is the last refuges of the politically ‘intellectual Left’.

Nobody reads the Guardian anymore and the only reason the BBC is watched is that they’re no commercials and they do sport better than anyone else in the world. Can you imagine watching a Superbowl Final with no commercials at all from beginning to end?

Unfortunately the BBC is still the most trusted source of news for more UK residents than any other source, whether print, radio, television or web.

The constant barrage of anti-Israel messages by the BBC, some on an almost subliminal level, do influence people on a sub-concious level. Even those who would dismiss the BBC as leftist drivel are slowly having their perceptions changed. Ordinary people in the street who have no more than a minimal interest in the Middle East are becoming predisposed to think negatively of Israel thanks to the BBC and its co-spewer of anti-Israel propaganda The Guardian.

Is it any wonder that the BBC fought so hard to have the Balen report suppressed.

I came here for random reasons, and my natural assumption was that this site was concerned with honest reporting in general. I see it has a very different agenda. As you have chosen not to give your organisation a name that is honest about its actual purposes, using the word “honest” in that name just stinks.

Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. The BBC is not obliged to like this or even agree with it, but even a pretense of impartial reporting requires them to state that the capital of a sovereign nation is where that country says it is.

Complaining about the BBC is like pissing against the wind. They always manage to come up with some vague justification for their actions then stand back and laugh as you bash your head on their immovable arrogance.

Being the public broadcaster in Britain, the BBC are responsible for misinforming the British public. This is either an unintentional act of ignorance or a deliberate attempt at delegitimizing the the State of Israel. Sadly. Either way, the BBC are bringing the integrity of the British people into disrepute and whilst I am an opponent of swooping generalizations, it remains the responsibility of the British people to bring its very own public broadcaster to book on issues where they are being lied to. Joseph Goebles the Nazi propagana minister said “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” Brits, you’re being duped! Time to take action.

I support Nushuktan’s comments. Isn’t it time that a formal complaint was raised against the BBC and any other media that consistently misrepresent the facts? I would have thought that if all misrepresentations of any one of the major offenders were lined up in a list, that list would surely be embarrassingly long and make it impossible to defend.

Israel’s foreign ministry and immigration authorities could declare all BBC personell to be persona non grata and asked to leave. The failure to recognize Israel’s capitol is sufficient reason. Furthermore, don’t let them use Ben Gurion to get to the West Bank. Make them use the Allenby bridge. Let the BBC report on Israel from Jordan or Damascus. They’re not that powerful, not that important and they hate you anyway. I’d threaten to put them on Israel’s terrorist list if they didn’t shape up.

Surely that response is worthy of a complaint to the UK Press Complaints Commission, even though that organization is probably worse than the BBC. Either way, I wasn’t even provided with a response to my complaint to BBC.

BBC’s reply utterly disgusts me. So what if the response is a result of ‘online lobbying’. What is their problem about that? Their response shows how utterly corrupt, dishonest liars, and utter filth that they are. I hope that this comment hits them right in the face and contiues to hit them until they see sense (which no doubt will be never!)

Why is there not a concerted campaign to boycott the BBC?
Isn’t it about time that the bigots who run what amounts to the world’s most effective anti-Israel propaganda machine learn what”lobbying” really is?
Without a doubt, with it’s wide ranging influence, the BBC is the single largest promoter of an anti-Israel agenda throughout the Western world. Until the BBC is forced into taking an object view of the Middle East there is little hope that worldwide sentiment could turn favourably towards Israel.
Those of us outside the UK should be calling our cable companies to drop the BBC or boycotting advertisers that support the BBC.
It’s time to stop the lies, it’s time to stop the BBC!

Making Tel Aviv the capitol of Israel is like making Manchester the capitol of England. The limey’s must get real and face the world out there. They are more to be pitied than scorned. After all, most of them do not know geopgraphy or where their own roots are. How does anyone expect anything else from them, let alone what the sovereign State of Israel is and it’s magnificent history. I often ask myself if they read their Bibles or even go to church? If they did, maybe their ignorance would not be so apparent.

Judging by your use of the word limey and your misspelling of capital (the capitol is in Washington, D.C.) you must be American.
If you want to slam the Beeb and other media for bias and dishonesting reporting, that’s fine with me. I think, however, that you should refrain from making such sweeping, insulting, and unjustified statements about the British people as a whole.
Stay on track and remember that HR is there to combat ant-Israel bias, not to give you a platform to spout off! Quite a high proportion of us Brits are not only well educated and well informed, many of us, whether Jewish or not, are pro Israel and perfectly capable of critical assessment of our media.

I, as a Brit feel ashamed that the BBC are so biased against Israel and also that they are either gullible or poorly educated on the history and current events taking place in Israel. I agree with Frederick that many Brits do know their Bible and support Israel and the Jewish people in general. It seems to me that our country is under a horrible sway of absolute hatred from large organizations like the BBC. British people are good at speaking with their feet – i.e. changing their allegiance to news sources such as the BBC and finding better ones. I have – I just can’t trust them anymore. There are more reliable agencies.